394 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



higher, he will seek for wealth or fame or both, and chiefly 

 for himself; if it is still higher, he will work for his country; 

 if it is very high, he will seek to confer great benefits on man- 

 kind in general, regardless of himself. We often hear it dis- 

 cussed as to who were the greatest men. So far as simple 

 personal ability is concerned, it would be difficult to choose 

 between a Newton, a Shakespeare, and a Bonaparte. But the 

 last worked really only for himself, with some secondary 

 thoughts for his adopted country. When good fortune took 

 him by the hand, he asked her only for enormous fame ; he 

 saw himself become a thunderbolt among men and the wonder 

 of all ; but since he died, what has been left of him and his 

 work except a story and a name which are scarcely greater than 

 the stories and names created out of Shakespeare's brain — 

 to-day he is nothing more to us than Hamlet and Othello. 

 But we can imagine that Shakespeare said to himself " I will 

 hold the mirror up to men and teach them their own nature." 

 He therefore gave us a boon incomparably greater than that 

 given by Napoleon. In this supreme line of effort the great 

 poet and the great man of science are one ; for indeed the two 

 muses are twin sisters. Newton did not demonstrate men to 

 man, but he demonstrated to him the heavens and the science 

 of numbers. Scarcely less are the travellers and soldiers who 

 confer civilisation upon barbaric tracts ; and the inventors who 

 confer innumerable utilities upon the whole race. In all of 

 such, not only must there have been the flash of the original 

 idea; but also the appreciation of its value to the world in 

 general. Where, compared with these, are the numerous men 

 of talent who are great only for themselves ? 



But even these two supreme qualities are not alone sufficient, 

 and the scientific man must possess the determination and 

 the vigour to overcome many difficulties before the original 

 idea can be materialised. That which when discovered be- 

 comes an easy commonplace is when undiscovered an almost 

 unattainable summit. He sees that summit only at moments 

 through the drifting clouds of doubt ; he commences the 

 ascent weighted by endless troubles and perplexities, and new 

 difficulties confront him at each footstep. How often does he 

 fail and turn back to the pleasant vales of ordinary life ! It 

 is a commonplace to think that Shakespeare dashed off his 

 dramas without thought ; but each one shows by the evidence 



